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Engagement

GES is a leading provider of engagement services to institutional investors globally. We support asset owners and asset managers in developing and implementing integrated investment strategies with regard to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. GES utilises all available engagement tools, from constructive dialogue through to shareholder resolutions and proxy voting, and we seek collaboration where needed to become even more effective.

GES has almost 25 years of experience as a highly respected owner advocate, with 65 employees globally, of which 40 are dedicated towards corporate engagement. Our team has built a large network of investors, corporates, academics, NGOs and other stakeholders, which we can draw upon during our engagement.

GES defines effective engagement by:

Clearly defining the change objective, not only to resolve the immediate problem, but to improve ESG preparedness of the company

Defining the strategy for change

Establishing a constructive relationship and a two-way engagement dialogue

GES Business Conduct Engagement

Norms-based engagement

GES Business Conduct Engagement is an incident driven engagement service that offers investors a collaborative tool for an active ownership process. Investors can follow and take part in GES engagement dialogues, as well as extract information that is essential for investment decision and ownership processes through our web-based platform. The engagement process builds upon the findings from GES Global Ethical Standard – a systematic screening of companies regarding their compliance with international norms on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues related to the UN Global Compact and OECD Guidelines for Multinationals. GES initiates engagement with companies that are, or have been involved in systematic business misconduct issues or in an isolated issue that has severe consequences for the environment or humans. A change objective is set for every engagement case in order to actively influence companies to address identified problems or risks and opportunities. GES Business Conduct Engagement covers more than 19,000 companies from major world indices and can be customized with additional companies.

GES Business Conduct Engagement can be used:

to address ESG issues that arise in portfolio companies:

clear change objectives and milestones that show progress

as input to investment decision

information and in-depth understanding of corporate incidents that might impact portfolio holdings but is not covered by financial news monitoring

The forum also facilitates individual and collaborative engagement efforts such as:

Coordination with GES Engagement clients

Coordination with other investors

Joint meeting with GES, investors and investee companies

For more details contact our office closest to your location. Go to Contacts.

GES Stewardship & Risk Engagement

Proactive thematic engagement

GES has developed a selection of thematic engagements that focus on raising standards across industries and on creating positive change in regards to some of the most challenging ESG risk issues. The thematic engagements are client driven and focus on issues and themes, which are most material to clients. This offers responsible investors an opportunity to support GES’ efforts to proactively encourage positive changes in selected specific business areas and industries.

Currently, GES’ Stewardship and Risk Engagement focuses on the following ten themes:

For more details contact our office closest to your location. Go to Contacts.

GES Japan Stewardship Engagement

Governance-based engagement in cooperation with Governance for Owners Japan

Japan has the third largest economy in the world and its stock markets account for about 8% of global equities, the second largest after US markets. However, Japanese corporates face challenges from a sustainability perspective. In GES’ view, the key issues that Japanese companies have yet to address are:

Effective oversight;

Business ethics and culture;

Diversity;

Human capital

The key issues are not necessarily limited to governance, but we believe that as investors we can address the above issues most effectively through governance. The main areas that we will focus on in this engagement include:

Effectiveness of the board

Compensation structure

Diversity

Succession planning

Escalation of issues

Implementation

The engagement spans three years and focuses initially on 7 large-cap companies. Our business partner, Governance for Owners Japan (GOJ), are leading the engagement process based on the methodology developed by GES and with our full support.

Governance for Owners Japan (GOJ) is an engagement service provider specialising in the Japanese market. It has 10 years of experience of providing global responsible investors with stewardship services in relation to their investee companies in Japan. GOJ is a joint venture that was established in Tokyo in 2007 and owned 60% by GO Investment Partners, a London-based independent investment partnership founded in 2004, and 40% by Tokio Marine Asset Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tokio Marine Holdings.

For more details contact our office closest to your location. Go to Contacts.

GES Bespoke Engagement

GES can also engage with selected companies from client portfolios upon request from individual clients. The process is customised to accommodate particular clients’ investment policies and objectives.

For more details contact our office closest to your location. Go to Contacts.